Georgia may soon review the rules guiding employment and residency of immigrants and foreigners in the country.

A proposal has already been submitted to the Georgian Parliament seeking to amend the rules that determine the employment of foreign nationals and the granting of permanent residency permits.

Georgians to be given priority consideration for jobs over foreigners

The main issue that has been brought under review is that Georgians will be given high priority in job employment. It is to say that foreigners can only be given a job when no Georgian citizen is applying for it. A new list stating the professions and specialties in which foreigners will be employed for will also be released.

This proposal was sponsored by the National Movement Opposition Party who argue that Georgia, being a country that is still battling with a high unemployment rate, should not have its citizens fighting over jobs with foreigners. Therefore, a regulation should be put in place to ensure that foreigners in the country do not deprive the citizens of opportunities to work.

The bill stresses that Georgia lacks in skilled and unskilled labor and that it is crucial that the Parliament draws up a list of professions and specialties requiring in human resources. They should also include in the list, positions designated by the state in which these foreign professionals could work in.

Other reviews covered in the bill include stricter rules for issuing permanent residency permits and the Residency by Investment visas to foreigners. The issuing of temporary residence visas may also be ended.

Currently, by investing at least 300 thousand GEL in Georgia, allows the investor to stay in Georgia for good. But the new proposal states that the investment visa will now only grant its holder, the permission to stay for five years. Again, investing three hundred thousand GEL may no longer be sufficient to grant a Georgian investor visa.

To obtain a Georgian investor visa, an applicant must invest at least an equivalent of 400 thousand USD in GEL and must hire 8 Georgians on a permanent employment basis. This visa only lets the visa holder to stay in Georgia for 5 years.

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